Paris’s circles de jeu (gambling clubs) long held a reputation as being controlled by Corsican Mafia gangsters

By Henry Samuel, Paris

Paris gambling clubs are under threat for Mafia links. The three closures in the space of three weeks suggest thatFrenchpolice have finally decided to end decades of tolerance towards the controversial venues.

Paris’s circles de jeu (gambling clubs) long held a reputation as being controlled by Corsican gangsters based on the Mediterranean island or in Marseilles and being money-laundering dens.

Glamorised in countless detective novels, they were the subject of epic and bloody disputes between rival mafia clans, notably in the so-called “gambling wars” of the 1970s.

However, in recent years the surviving few were believed to have changed their ways.

Eight were still in operation last month. But on Wednesday, some 200 officers from Paris’s judicial police swooped on Le Cercle Wagram and L’Eldo in the city’s 17th and 3rd arrondissements after a year-long investigation into their owners’ allegedly fraudulent practices. read the rest Click here: Future of Paris gambling clubs under threat – Telegraph